Ghanaian Puff Puff Seller Jailed 5 Months For Stealing in Lagos

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A 22-year-old Ghanaian, Mohammed Daniel, 22, was yesterday sentenced by an Ebutte-Metta magistrate court to five months imprisonment without an option of fine, for stealing tricycle parts valued N550,000.

Mohammed was convicted after he was found guilty on three count charges of conspiracy, stealing and escaping from police custody.

The offence, according to the prosecutor, contravened Sections 106 and 285 of the criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2011.

Mohammed, who peed his pants in the courtroom before the charges were read to him, pleaded guilty to two of the charges, even before he was asked.

The prosecutor, Corporal Onaiwu Iyobosa, had told the court during the convict’s arraignment on April 29, that the he had stolen tricycle parts belonging to Mrs. Aromasodun Sariatu, on April 25, at 4, Coates street, Ebute-Metta, Lagos.

She told the court that the complainant saw the accused when he was stealing the property and invited anti-robbery policemen from Denton police station to arrest him.

On the charge of escaping from custody, the prosecutor said: “When the Investigative Police Officer, IPO, was about to take the accused statement, the D.P.O received a distress call that armed robbers were operating at Osholanke Street, Lagos. The I.P.O left the accused with handcuff at the charge room, and the accused ran away with the handcuff.”

Iyobosa said the convict was later re-arrested by the police officers at Sabo division who saw him with handcuff and brought him back to Denton police station.

The convict had earlier told the court that he used the money realized from stealing to support what he got from puff-puff selling to assist his family in Ghana.